Sunday's on the phone to Monday

Mathilde Spicer, a budding thespian, and Claudio Simone, a recent graduate, marry young after falling in love at a party at NYU. They are immediately simpatico, and the narrator states this isn't a story about love; instead, this will be a story about family. They soon become five, with two of their own, Natasha and Lucy, and an adopted daughter from China, Carly. They move to Long Island, where the girls have a picturesque childhood eating peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, laughing, writing, listening to the Beatles, and, eventually, playing spin the bottle. But when Lucy contracts a rare heart condition, the family struggles to remain strong in the face of impending tragedy. An intermittent subplot concerning Claudio's wayward, mentally ill sister, Jane, adds an additional sense of hardship. With clever chapter titles and an index of themes, Reilly's debut is structurally expressive, especially with the dialogue in italics, which creatively establishes a sense of interiority and intuitive communication between the Simones. A compelling family tale rich in vivid and relatable struggles.--Grant, Sarah Copyright 2016 Booklist

Reilly's debut novel explores how a love evolves as responsibilities mount for two parents with three very different daughters. The book starts with the courtship of Claudio and Mathilde in 1980s New York City, moves through their adult lives as they marry and settle into their careers-Claudio runs a record shop, Mathilde is an actress-and then in Part Two introduces their three daughters. For a first-time novelist, Reilly is deft in her characterizations; the main story lines, especially the daughters'-young Natasha, Lucy, and adopted Carly-are full of imaginative anecdotes and vibrant details. Ever-capitalized references to an abstraction known as Heart, representing the family's love, and the constant presence of rock tunes punctuate moments of heightened emotion-at times too obviously. But Reilly's tidy, whimsical prose balances the long lapses into sentimentality. Although New York and classic rock create a strong sense of time and place, the heart of the novel arises from the intimacy among the sisters. They, like their parents, keep secrets, fight to protect one another, and make mistakes, eventually discovering that life can't be all YouTube videos and first kisses. Reilly's first novel is touching and nostalgic. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A lyrical, and lyric-filled, portrait of a family in love and sorrow. This whimsical, bittersweet debut novel recalls the work of filmmaker Wes Anderson, both in subject (a complicated, tightknit family full of smart, worried people) and in style (full of quirky, impossible-to-ignore formal choices). Reilly's central pair of sensitive, bohemian New Yorkers are aspiring actress Mathilde Spicer and record-store owner Claudio Simone, who meet in 1988 at a vodka-soaked party given by an NYU undergraduate. Also introduced in the opening section of the book are Mathilde's gay younger brother and Claudio's mentally ill sistereach of whom remains within the cocoon of family the couple spins as they move through adulthood. In the second, much longer, portion of the book, which follows the family to the year 2016 and beyond, the focus is on the couple's daughters, three Salinger-esque siblings: supersmart Natasha, poetic Lucy, and Carly, adopted from China. The reader is given access to each of their Hearts as their tragedy slowly unfolds, as do the borderline-twee affectations of the prose. The word Heart is capitalized every time it's used, even in the middle of a word, like sweetHeart. The word god is lowercased, even if it's the first word in the sentence. A car is said to be "hindering" in front of a building; a woman with many children gets their names "whisked up," someone's hair color is "blanched" blond. Several of Lucy's poems are included, as is a pseudo-index (with lots of page references for the entries for Heart and god, but none for "doctors apologizing"). From its title to its chapter names to the characters' interior monologues, the book is drenched in song lyrics, predominantly Beatles, but extending all the way to Badfinger. At one point, to answer the question "What can you do?," Claudio considers lyrics by Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Bob Seger, Sam and Dave, Bob Dylan, and the Monkees, all in one paragraph. Occasional eye-rolls aside, there is something iridescent about this novel. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.